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When being unique is not special

I don’t like to complain about insurance. I’ve been blessed with competent insurance through work for years now, and I am thankful for that. We’ve recently had a bump in the road however, and insurance angst was running high.

There actually was two problems. One was a me problem, and one was a them problem. Let me give you the background. When you have a life change moment (marriage/divorce, new child), you have 30 days to change your insurance. Since our girl was born on Dec 22, this gives us until mid January to complete the change.

Let’s start with the me problem. When I added our girl to our insurance, it requires that you enter in her name (obviously). I entered her name incorrectly. Not misspelled, but our name as opposed to her legal name. When she was born, birth mother can name her whatever she feels like. Her legal name right now is not the same name you know, or the name she will have in four months. I entered our name, when I needed to enter her legal name. Our current insurance didn’t have matching names, so that was a problem. Luckily, it was a simple phone call to fix the issue.

The second issue has to do with our other insurance. You might have noticed that I said “current insurance” in the previous paragraph. Our company switched providers starting January 1st. So, when I added her in January to the current insurance company”, it also needed to add her to the previo us insurance company that was no longer our insurance. Got that?

I have to think we are the unique circumstance. There are two ways to add someone to your insurance, marriage and new child. While it’s not unlikely that someone in the company got married this past December, I’d say it’s unlikely that they also visited a doctor soon afterwards. A baby born in early December would most likely get added before January, so it wouldn’t be crazy to think that we were the only couple that added a baby in this small transitional phase.

When our claim got denied, I called to figure out why. Now in November I talked with the companies benefits representative to ask how to handle this unique circumstance. She told me that I just needed to go to the website and add her, and the company will add her to both coverages. Talking now with the claims department, this lady (implying without directly saying) tells me that I screwed up by not adding her to both coverages. She sets it up for review, and they’ll get back to me.

Do you ever feel when you’re talking to a customer service rep that they seem to be a robot? They have a response that doesn’t necessarily match the question you have. So fine, you’re going to review our case. When will I hear about the results?

“Well, I can call back in two days, but they won’t have reviewed it yet”

“Don’t call me to tell me nothing, but how will I find out about the case? Do I need to call?”

“Like I said, I can mark this as a call back, but that will be in two days and they won’t be done yet”

ARRGG! Why must we fight! After calibrating my responses to get the answer I needed (10 days, we’ll call you), I hang up annoyed. We have one stinking bill that needs coverage. Are they really going to screw me over one bill? Do I need to send a mass email out to fellow employees that says “Do NOT use the website, they’ll screw you!”

Ten days later the call comes (new rep, much nicer), and she informs me the problem is fixed, and have them resubmit. Cool.

So, we’re back to good insurance (competency is more questionable, though). Everyone is covered, and life is good. Until I have to change names in June, then we shall see.